alright so im replacing my head gaskets on my 86 dl wagon (ea82 carb) and i wanted to know what all do i need to take apart. i've been scanning around the site looking for threads and junk but i haven't really found much for the ea82 other than swap it for the ej22 which i wish i could... i have a chilton's manual and i've been reading through and its confusing the crud out of me but i think i have a general idea? but i figured all you guys on here are way smarter and have better experience with this stuff. i was also wondering if you can take the heads off with the cam case/towers/whatever they are called still attached to the heads. i read a thread about this guy with a forester who said you could so i was wondering if it worked for mine too? any advice or tips or shortcuts or whatever would be a really big help!

 

keep in mind i've neve done this before so i'm drawing a huge blank mostly when i look at this thing, haha.

 

i'll also put some pictures of my beast up so you all know what im workin with. (lift and wheels)

 

thanks!

kartier

you have to detach the exhaust manifold. Undo the 6 bolts holding the intake on and bungee that out of the way, there is the bonus of not having to unhook all the crap that's on there. Then pull the engine out of the car, it's much easier to do out of the car but is doable with it in there. Don't forget to index the distributor if/when you pull it out.

i've drained the oil and coolant, unbolted the exhaust, unbolted the valve/cam/whatever covers, i'm seeing bolts and bigger bolts haha i have the urge to just undo everything but im not going to since i am hoping that i can just undo the head without undoing the cam towers and from how things look in comparison to the guy with the forester, the bigger stud bolt go through the cam towers and the heads into the block. i will undo the intake, pull it back and see what else i should do from how things look.

 

if i could pull the engine i would since i can figure out this is going to be a hassle with it in the car, but i dont have that option so i get to have so much fun with it in the car...

 

thanks and keep any info and tips coming!

 

kartier.

Edited January 24, 201016 yr by Kartier

you have to take off the cam carriers to get the head bolts out. you can get the FSM here http://www.numbchuxconversions.com/downloads.htm

lots of info here on this, i know i've written a lot about these.

 

use Fel Pro permatorque head gaskets and add 5-10 pounds to the final torque. that allows you to skip the retorque and comes with lots of recommendations from those of us here that do it that way.